


sink into the floor

by demndays



Category: Be More Chill - Iconis/Tracz
Genre: 7 year olds please don’t read this i beg of you, Alternate Universe - No Squip, M/M, They’re adults, college au kinda sorta, don’t hate me pls, jeremy is kinda popular and hangs out with the Cool Kids B), michael says f words a lot, there’s another au but am i gonna say? not yet
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-28
Updated: 2019-01-28
Packaged: 2019-10-18 04:47:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,490
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17574179
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/demndays/pseuds/demndays
Summary: jeremy’s been living the average life of a theatre kid who hangs out with his friends. halloween night changes it all when they go to that abandoned house.





	sink into the floor

**Author's Note:**

  * For [fin!](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=fin%21).



 He hates this.

 Well, he wouldn’t say hate. Maybe more of a strong dislike. You know, like how you feel whenever you see your family being gushy or overly sweet. You don’t  _ hate  _ it, but you don’t want to be there. That’s how Jeremy feels at this moment. 

 His group of friends are dragging him along at nine p.m on Halloween, he has only a thin layer of clothing on because he didn’t know his friends were going to pop up, and it’s currently sprinkling. 

 “Jeremy,” Rich’s voice breaks his inner monologue. “Will you  _ please _ keep your eyes up? We’re looking for hella rad houses to go into and like, explore and shit.” 

 “Rich,” Jeremy mocks his friend’s tone, “I would much rather be home cuddling my cute, little puppy right now. But, I love you guys too fucking much.” 

 Jake Dillinger barges in, “Aww, guys, he said the word love!” 

 “Language, Jeremy.” 

 “Christine, it wasn’t even that bad—”

 “Really? An F-bomb isn’t bad?” 

 Jeremy groans and the rest of his friends laugh at the interaction. Jeremy seriously does not want to be around Jake Dillinger right now, especially after all the shit he’s said to another girl that he was pretty tight with—in terms of friendship.

 Rich tugs Jeremy’s sleeve and nods his head in the opposite direction, silently telling him to fall behind with him. Jeremy only raises a brow, but does it anyway. 

 Rich looks around nervously and meets gazes with his lanky friend. “Look, man, can I talk to you?” 

 Jeremy nods. “Yeah, dude. Is it super serious and I shouldn’t joke about it or…”

 “Nah, you can joke about it, bro,” he threads his fingers through his slicked hair. “So, um, I don’t wanna be here.” 

 “But, you’re the one who dragged me out of bed with my very adorable puppy.” 

 “Jeremy, are you in love with your fucking dog?” 

 “She’s cute, man.” 

 Rich shakes his head and gets to the point. “Jake wanted to do something and said Christine was tagging along. I didn’t wanna be completely alone, ya know?” 

 Jeremy purses his lips. “I thought you and Jake were cool now.” 

 Rich obviously becomes riddled with nerves. “We, uh, haven’t talked about it. I kinda don’t want to.” 

 The brunette frowns at his friend, but gives a short nod. “Just make sure you eventually do. I don’t want this awkward tension between you two going on forever.” 

 “Anyways, dude, I just hate Halloween.” 

 “You love the parties, though.”

 Rich seems to become more distant after that, like it had reminded him of something. “It’s a whole thing I’m not ready to get in to. I promise I’ll tell you one of these days.” 

 “Look, Rich, you don’t have to tell me shit. I just want you safe and happy, man. You’re my closest friend.” 

 “Popular guys  _ don’t  _ say that, Heere.”

 Jeremy chuckles and rolls his eyes, “Yeah, well, close friends usually don’t call each other their last names. But, look where we are, Goranski.” 

 Rich smiles and playfully shoved Jeremy’s shoulder. They catch up with Jake and Christine who seem to have had their own deep-ish conversation. Jake nods in acknowledgment of the two coming back and they all get in to a debate on whether or not cheese is good. It lasts a while until Jake interrupts everything by pointing at a very old, run-down building. 

 “Holy shit! We  _ need  _ to go in there!” Jake turns around to his friends excitedly like a kindergartener after learning a new swear word. 

 Rich immediately pales; Jeremy immediately notices. 

 “Uh, I don’t think so. We should find another place.” Rich’s voice is shaky, but it seems only Jeremy notices. 

 “Maybe Rich is right. This place looks boring.” Jeremy at least tries to help him. 

 Jeremy gives a good look at the place. It doesn’t look super run-down, but it’s still not in great shape. Planks of wood are sticking out, windows are broken, water is dripping down from the tilted gutter, and the house is plain gray with the paint terribly chipped. The door seems to be boarded up, so they’d have to go through a broken window. There doesn’t seem to be any shards of glass anywhere—strange. 

 Jeremy squints at the mud in front of him and looks to Rich quickly. He still looks like he’s terrified to go in there. Jeremy can’t really blame him; it sort of looks like there’s someone in there already. 

 “No way, man! Just look at this!” Jake flails his arms everywhere and dashes to find a window. Rich sticks by Jeremy, and they both stay quiet. 

 Jake rushes them to come, with Christine already inside. Jeremy goes before Rich, and Rich comes through and immediately attaches himself back to Jeremy. 

 “No homo,” he mutters under his breath, causing Jeremy to snort. Jeremy’s eyes scan the area and he squints his eyes to get them to focus on the newly darker lighting. There doesn’t seem to be much stuff in here except a couch and a bookshelf that has some random comics and novels. The kitchen is empty, there seems to be a bathroom, but it’s dirty beyond belief. There’s no way someone could possibly be living in this shithole. 

 Rich seems more anxious they closer they get to the staircase, where Jake and Christine were already walking up. 

 “Hey,” Jeremy grabs his friend’s attention, “we can just ditch them if you want, man. You seem hella uncomfortable.” 

 Rich vigorously shakes his head. “No! I can make it.” 

 “Rich…”

 “Jeremy, I can do this.” Rich grips Jeremy’s elbow and drags him up the staircase with Jake and Christine. 

 Jake turns back and smirks, “Took you two long enough. You weren’t making out back there, were you?” 

 Jeremy immediately reddens from embarrassment and waves his hands rapidly. “Fuck no, Jake! Rich and I were just talking and we didn’t see you two come up here.” 

 Rich huffs and rolls his eyes, nudging Jeremy to drop it. He nods to him and just continues up the stairs, noticing how low the ceiling gets the further they go. Sooner or later, him and Jake are gonna have to either squeeze through or go back down. 

 There’s a sudden sound that stops them all. They all glance back and forth from each other and Rich gets closer to Jeremy. He leans close to whisper something, but then ends up stopping himself. 

 Jeremy frowns, but doesn’t bring it up in the moment. The group stills and wait for any other noise, and they get one. 

 A voice yelling a single word. “ _ Fuck _ !” 

 Rich pales and makes eye contact with Jeremy. Jeremy nudges his head in the direction of downstairs and Rich goes to nod yes, but Jake grabs them and shoved them forward. 

 “If anyone is gonna die, it’s not gonna be me. I’ve got a date later.” 

 “Gee, thanks, Jake. Such a good guy.” Jeremy sneers and scrambles to fix his posture. Rich’s eyes nervously dart across the room and Jeremy keeps walking. There’s only one room up here. He goes to fuck with the knob, but is met with the door slamming into his face. 

 “Yo, who the fuck else is in here? A bunch of fucking teenagers?” the same voice from before breaks the silence. Instead, now the voice belongs to a tall, tan man who has brown hair, is shirtless, and wears glasses.

 Then, Rich speaks up for the first time in what seems like hours. “No, just a bunch of college kids trying to find some spooky scary houses or some shit.” 

 “Goranski.” The name is said with such acidity and… anger that it even made Jeremy shiver behind the door. Who the fuck even is this guy? 

 “It’s been a while, huh?” Rich’s voice is shaky and sounds like he’s on the verge of crying. Jeremy gets out from behind the door and attempts to go to his friend, but is stopped by the dude. 

 “Look, kid, stop hanging with Goranski. He’s a huge dick.” 

 “The fuck do you know about my best friend?” Jeremy’s response is instant and curt, but he doesn’t care; he needs to get to Rich. 

 “Jeremy—”

 “Kid—”

 They both speak at the same time and Jeremy’s going to absolutely lose it. 

 “What do you even have against Rich?” Jeremy glares at the stranger and Rich backs away slowly. 

 “Jeremy, we should go.”

 Jeremy turns back to him quickly, “I’m not leaving until I know why I need to absolutely hate you or something,” Jeremy goes back to glaring. “So?” 

 “Look,” the stranger starts talking, “we have a past and it’s not fucking great. I recommend you leave the friendship before it’s too fucking late and he does what he did to me to you.” 

 “Michael, you know I couldn’t—”

 “Shut the fuck up, Goranski.” 

 Jeremy budges in. “Who even are you?”

 “I’m Michael. That’s all you need to know.” 

 “Jeremy, let’s just go.” 

 “Oh, fuck no,” Michael growls, “you’re here now. You better start explaining why.” 

 Rich sighs shakily. “Look, I was just hanging out with friends and they wanted to go explore some abandoned buildings. I never wanted to come in here in the first place, I knew you’d be here.” 

 “Yet, you still came in.”

 “It’s not like I had a fucking choice, Mell!”

 “You sure fucking did.” 

 Jake finally comes up to the top and glances at what is unfolding. He doesn’t make himself known to Michael or Rich, and only taps Jeremy on the shoulder. 

 “Let’s just go,” he whispers and Jeremy shoves him away. 

 “I’m not gonna just leave Rich,” Jeremy hisses back and Jake backs away to check on Christine. 

 Jeremy brings his focus back to the now yelling match happening in front of him. 

 “Michael Mell, you seem to have gotten even fucking worse since the last day I saw you.”

 “Same thing goes to you, Dick.”

 “Can you both shut up?” Jeremy groans and rubs his face irritably. 

 They both turn to him and—in unison—say simply, “Fuck no.”

 “Please? Rich, we need to go back to the dorms.” 

 “Oh, Dick here is in school again, huh? So proud of you! Bet you’re making  _ tons _ of friends and making them like me!” Michael’s voice is oozing with so much sarcasm to the point it makes Jeremy’s head hurt. 

 Rich rolls his eyes and scoffs. “Look,  _ asshole _ , how many fucking times do I have to tell you—”

 “Zero. I’m tired of the same old excuse, Goranski.” 

 “Fine, then. Bye, Mell. Have fun staying cooped up in here without being able to function again after what happened one fucking time.”

 “It changed me forever, Goranski. I can’t change what happened to me and you fucking know it.”

 “I know damn well that we can’t fix it. Why do you think I’ve been beating myself up for what happened?” Rich finally lets go of holding back and begins crying; Jeremy immediately rushes to his side. 

 “Rich, let’s just go.” 

 Rich nods and holds on to his friend’s arm as they walk back, leaving behind Michael Mell in his cold, dark abandoned building. 

※

 Jeremy wakes up with Rich right next to him on the floor, snoring loudly. His puppy is next to him, sleeping on Rich’s chest. The brunette can’t help but think about last night and the shouting fest that had happened. What was it even about? Michael has mentioned that it was something that they can’t change; they can’t fix it. Should he ask Rich? Or would that be too much? It had to be a lot to see someone after what seems like years ago that you had a falling out with. 

 But, he can’t help but be curious and worried. 

 Jeremy sighs and gets up from his bed to make breakfast while Rich continues to sleep. He’s tempted to kick him to wake him up, but Rich had a rough night, so he won’t.

 Jeremy sifts through the fridge of two broke college students and manages to find just enough ingredients to make a waffle and pancake. They both still can’t agree on which is better. Rich is a total pancake lover while Jeremy thinks the crispness of a waffle is much,  _ much better _ . 

 He’s able to make them both food without burning them or causing a small fire, so he thinks today might be a good day. 

 Jeremy goes to put Rich’s pancake on a plate, but ends up screeching when he sees Rich behind him with a huge smirk on his face. 

 “Jesus fuck, Rich!” His arms flail and Rich’s eyes widen. He goes to grab the food before it falls and actually succeeds while Jeremy tries to calm his heart down. 

 “I’m so sorry, holy fuck. That could have gone so much worse.” Rich laughs and Jeremy joins in, holding his hand up to cover his mouth. 

 “Agreed, but it doesn’t excuse the fact that you definitely made me almost shit myself.” 

 Rich cackles and snatches the syrup out of the fridge to lather his pancake in. 

 They’re mid small talk when Rich randomly gets  _ really _ quiet. 

 “Jer,” he says it at almost a whisper. “We need to talk about last night.”

 “Which part, man?”

 “The Michael part.”

 Jeremy frowns and shoves a piece of waffle in his face. “You don’t have to talk about it if you really don’t want to, Rich.” 

 “Jeremy—”

 “You’re clearly not ready. Take your time. I can wait.”

 “But—”

 “No buts! Eat your pancake! We almost killed it this morning, it deserves to be savored.” 

 Rich just smiles and they remain silent for the rest of breakfast. There’s intervals of them laughing at Jeremy’s puppy trying to waddle her way up to them, but that’s really it. It’s unusual for the best friends and roommates, but it’s needed. Especially today. 

 It isn’t long until that silence is broken by Jake barging through the dorms door and frantically waving his arms around. 

 “Dudes!” is all he yells excitedly and he points at the window. 

 Jeremy groans and decides he’ll answer the dumbass. “Yes, Jake?” 

 “We’ve  _ got  _ to go back to that place! I mean, did you forget there was a  _ guy _ just  _ living there _ ?” 

 “No—”

 Jake pulls puppy-dog eyes on them. “Please?”

 Jeremy looks to Rich and the blonde shakes his head. “Jer, you can go. I’m staying here, though. I can’t face him two days in a row.” 

 “Are you sure? I’ll come home and make you dinner or something because we both know you won’t be able to without causing a fire,” Jeremy smiles at his closest friend and Rich chuckles. 

 He rolls his eyes, “I’ll be fine. Just… be careful. I don’t know what he’ll do.” 

 “I’ll be careful, Rich. I promise.” 

 They hug briefly and Jeremy slips on a jacket while heading out the door with Jake. 

 They don’t talk until they’re almost there and Jake drops a huge ass bomb on Jeremy.

 “You’re going in alone, bro.”

 Jeremy swiftly looks over and furrows his brows, “The hell I am.”

 “Look, man, something isn’t right with whoever is in there. You stood up to that dude. I think you’ll survive.”

 “You’re coming in. I don’t care if you go up all the way, but I am  _ not  _ going in alone.” Jeremy kind of playfully punches Jake’s shoulder. Jake gives in and they go in the same way as last night—through that broken window. 

 Jeremy squeezes through first and then Jake. 

 The house is exactly the same—run-down and gross. 

 Jeremy tightens his jacket around his frame and begins to walk up the stairs, trying to keep quiet this time around. The house is completely silent besides the water leak. 

 His Converse stop at the door that hit him square in the face last night and his anxiety starts to catch up with him. Look, he might play sports in his free time, but he isn’t a fucking superhero or something. He’s far from one. 

 What does he even do? Knock on the fucking door? 

 Guess that’s his only option. 

 His knuckles rap on the wood, and the door swings open instantaneously. This time, though, he’s able to dodge it. 

 “Who the fuck is it this time?” Michael’s voice is rough and husky, like he’d just woken up. His eyes scan the room and land on the lanky student. “Oh, you again.” 

 “Uh, hi?” Jesus fuck why is he so awkward? 

 “Really? That’s the best you got? You must be  _ very  _ popular.” 

 “I am actually.” Jeremy remarks and Michael snorts.

 “Yeah, right. And I’m normal.” 

 Jeremy quirks a brow. “You seems relatively normal to me.”

 “Kid, I’m far from it.” 

 Jeremy rolls his eyes. “Why do you keep calling me kid? You’re probably not even that much older than me.” 

 “So, he didn’t tell you, huh?” 

 “The fuck do you mean by that?” 

 “Richard. He didn’t tell you.”

 “What didn’t he tell me?” Jeremy’s genuinely confused and this Michael guy isn’t helping to solve any of his questions. 

 Michael leans back and bangs his head against the wall. “Look, kid—”

 “It’s Jeremy.”

 “Look,  _ Jeremy _ , I’m not gonna tell you shit. That’s good ol’ Richard’s job.” 

 “Why do you even hate him so much?” Jeremy decided to invite himself in to the room and takes a good look. It’s more clean and actually has a bed. It has a different bookshelf with more comics and video games, and there’s even what seems to be a somewhat working fridge. 

 “He did something I can’t forgive him for.” Michael’s answer is quick and seems distant, like he went back to relive what had happened. “Why are you even here?”

 “My friend dragged me back here for no apparent reason. He basically ditched me right as we got here.”

 “Seems like a guy Rich would hang with,” Michael’s answer is bitter. 

 “Well, we’re kind of a friend group. I don’t really like him, but hey, he’s sometimes a good guy when he wants to be.” Jeremy goes to open the fridge, but Michael immediately moves his hand away. 

 “Don’t look in there.” Michael’s stern tone of voice convinced Jeremy for the time being. 

 “How old are you?” Jeremy asks and relaxes on the bed. 

 “Not gonna say.”

 “Alright. Well, I’m twenty-one. I’m studying theatre while Rich studies some weird science shit.” Jeremy takes in the detail of the ceiling. He notices that there’s some glow-in-the-dark star stickers up there.

 “Science, huh? Never took him as a smart guy.” 

 Jeremy shrugs. “I help him with his homework a lot of the time and he helps me with my lines. It’s a win-win,” he begins to doze off when he decides he’ll continue the conversation. “How’s your life been living here and all?”

 Michael looks at him and sits down next to Jeremy. “It’s been kind of shit, but it’s what I do to get by. I don’t trust myself around other people ever since what happened.”

 “What even happened? You mentioned something about it last night—”

 “Richard will tell you, Jeremy. I won’t tell you my side of the story until he tells his.” 

 “Okay…” Jeremy sighs and sits up from laying down. “Can you give me any hints?” 

 “Even if I could, I don’t think a theatre kid would be able to piece it together.” Michael smirks and Jeremy laughs softly. 

 “We’re not all dumb,” Jeremy stops to think for a moment, “Well, most of us are.” 

 Michael laughs and gets up from his spot on the bed. “Guess I should put on a shirt since I have company, huh?” 

 Jeremy hadn’t even noticed. Still, he didn’t really mind. Michael was ripped and had nice skin, you know?

 “I didn’t really mind,” Jeremy shrugs and tries to play it off as small talk, but he knew the roots were much more. 

 Michael seems to have caught on. “Jeremy, that’s not a good idea.” His tone is serious—borderline too serious.

 “I didn’t mean it like that—” Jeremy’s face reddens and he groans as he hides his face in his hands. 

 “How long do you plan on staying?” Michael pushes his head out of the whole and stretches his arms out to adjust the way the shirt clings to his biceps. 

 “Don’t know. I can leave if you want.”

 “No, it’s fine. I enjoy your company. Even if you are some random college student who managed to sneak in and get the door slammed in his face. Which, by the way, I am sorry for.”

 Jeremy chuckles and shakes his head. “I’ve recovered from since then. It’s all good. My face is left unscathed.” 

 “That’s good. You’ve got such a nice face, we don’t wanna mess it up.” 

 Didn’t Michael just get on to him for just  _ slightly _ flirting? This man is going to be the biggest mystery Jeremy will ever have to solve in his entire life. 

 But, he’s okay with that. 


End file.
